Gravity Force Hard Push
The head blasted inward, but not before it partially melted, its foulness poisoning the air around them.
"Hooo...hoo!" Elias stumbled backward, wobbling as he fell and rose, desperately creating distance. Yet the stench followed him as if he were still beside the creature's snout, suffocating him with each labored breath.
Tears streamed from his reddening eyes. His skin swelled with angry rashes that oozed foul liquid, each bump a testament to the corrupted air.
Finally, at fifty meters away, they found slightly breathable air. Their bearings partially returned, and they bolted toward the L-turn corridor a hundred and fifty meters ahead.
The air remained tainted. The green-haired boy struggled to breathe, but to Elias and Dice, this place was heaven compared to what they'd fled. Exhausted beyond measure, they all slumped down and fainted.
Time passed, the air purified, the beast decayed, further weathering the ground around it.
With a violent jerk, Elias woke. "Blargh!" He emptied his stomach onto the ground. Though the air was cleaner now, the memory of what he'd witnessed couldn't be purged so easily. "Blargh!" That was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen.
He wobbled to his feet and glared at the eerie gate in the distance. "She said the place was cleared!" His movements woke Dice, and they exchanged a nod of grim understanding before moving to tend to their friends.
Elias knelt beside Sasha, panic rising as he noticed her full mature chest—usually rising and falling—wasn't rising. He pressed a trembling finger to her nose, hoping to feel even the faintest breath, but there was nothing.
Desperate, he poked her neck with his finger, causing her to recoil suddenly and burst into laughter.
"Argh." He found nothing amusing as gravity seemed to pull him down harder. He spread-eagled on his back, staring blankly at the sky.
Sasha sat up on the stone where she'd been lying, a satisfied grin playing across her lips.
"You said don't laugh at someone's misfortune," Elias muttered. "Yet here you are, laughing now!"
"You tickled my neck," she countered, still smiling.
"Hmmn!" Even thinking exhausted Elias. Ignoring her seemed the best he could manage.
Green woke with a pained groan. Elias watched as they drank medicine that seemed to instantly refresh them.
Sasha moved to retrieve medicine from her pack, but their opponents were faster. A sword slash cut through the air, followed by a green energy blast.
"Gravity Force Hard Push!" Elias shouted, but the sword slash cut through his powerful force, clearing the path for the green blast.
Sasha had already ducked behind the stone she'd been lying on earlier. Elias's barrier materialized just in time to protect him.
BANG!
They sprang up to counterattack—
ROAR!
The atmosphere seemed to darken, and they all froze. Elias stepped to the center of the clearing, squinting toward the gate. "I can't see that far," he said, the rashes inside his eyelids blurring his vision.
Sasha stood beside him, her voice trembling. "Silhouettes... beasts similar to that abomination?"
Dice and Green were also staring intently. "How many?" Dice asked Green, his vision as compromised as Elias's. "More than five, I think," Green muttered uncertainly.
"They're watching us," Sasha whispered.
In a blur of movement, Green grabbed Dice, enveloping them both in green psychic energy before disappearing back the way they had come.
"They left pretty damn fast!" Elias exclaimed, incredulous.
ROAR!
ROAR!
Gravity Force surged through Sasha and Speedy as Elias pulled them toward himself, running for the craft stone.
He dropped them unceremoniously; they rolled across the ground before Sasha stood, dragging Speedy into the craft stone. Elias was already seated, one hand pressing the book against the stone's side where a shadow had appeared, poised to attack.
"Oh my... oh my god!" Sasha's voice cracked with fear as she watched the beast recoil and moved away.
"They... they didn't see us!" she exclaimed, bewildered. They had clearly been about to be attacked, yet somehow the creatures walked away.
"There's only a dead end ahead," Elias muttered, before the sickening sounds of crushing bone and squelching flesh reached his ears. The sounds triggered fresh trauma, and he recoiled.
The beasts had indeed reached the dead end, but acted as if they saw nothing—or perhaps saw something else entirely. The first rammed its head against solid rock, its skull exploding on impact. Black blood splashed against the stone, which absorbed every drop, darkening and becoming brittle. Its neck twisted at an impossible angle, broken.
The next beast also shattered its head and neck, further weakening the rock. As more followed, they strangely carved themselves a new path forward.
Elias and Sasha's flat umbrella hats had been lost during their flight. She pulled out a veil and wrapped it around their faces, filtering the increasingly foul air wafting from the distance.
Sasha couldn't stay still, shifting position every few seconds. "How... how did you scare them away?" Her voice mixed fear and relief. "I really thought we were going to die!"
Elias maintained razor-sharp focus on the book, ensuring its presence extended outward. He could see some beasts darting toward them only to recoil after a single step. Then Sasha's hand touched his shoulder, her question breaking his concentration.
"SILENT, Sasha! I'm working here!" he snapped. A beast had nearly approached them, and even the veil filtering their air was failing; his stomach was already churning.
Sasha flinched back. The outburst reminded her of her brother—the Hunter Elias. Her nervousness always got the better of her in crises, compelling her to talk until he'd yell at her to stop.
It was a trait that emerged unconsciously only around those she felt at peace with. Alone or with strangers, her panic turned inward, disturbing no one but herself.
'Guess I've gotten close to him,' Sasha thought. But her hands wouldn't stop fidgeting as she watched the creatures approach and retreat, approach and retreat.
After nearly fifteen minutes, the sounds ceased. Still, they maintained their silence for another half hour.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you," Elias finally said, his voice softer.
"No, I should apologize. I almost broke your concentration." Her tone was subdued.
"Still, that's not how I should have responded. You speak when you're anxious. I should have calmed you down."
"It's okay."
A groan interrupted them.
They turned toward Speedy. "Sam. How do you feel?" Sasha asked.
'Sam? She knows him. Well, of course she does,' Elias thought, watching them carefully.
"How do you feel?" she repeated, her eyes filled with genuine concern. Her blood-smeared face gazing down at him wasn't exactly reassuring, but knowing her character, Sam understood the sincerity behind it.
"I'll live," he managed.
"Here, drink some medicine."
"I have some in my pocket," Sam spoke with difficulty. Checking him, she pulled out several vials and poured one into his mouth. Within seconds, the pain visibly eased from his expression.
"I'm sorry," she said, her voice thick with apology.
Elias turned to look at the boy. The way Sam's face had swollen, the expression of someone holding back tears—it twisted something in Elias's stomach. He recognized that look all too well. It was the face of someone who had lost something precious and was only beginning to understand the magnitude of that loss.